CSS 147

A. 4

A frail girl with long stringy hair appeared, once again, in a rocking chair beside a window with a quilt, a ball of yarn, and a needle beside her. The girl seemed to have been no older than 17 but her appearance looked to be that of an older woman, maybe it was medication that aged her faster, her diagnosis or genes, either way it went she already had a hair full of gray but her mind was that of a child. The girl rocked beside the window, laughing to herself, "she's going to die in the flood."

Ever so evil the words came out of her lips as they snarled under her breath, "the water is going to eat her alive."

She just kept rocking when Tina woke up stressed out, yet again. Tina gasped for air and kept trying to grab the blankets, she sat up in her bed crying aloud, "I don't want to die... noooo."

Her husband woke up to her sobs, he grabbed her body and held her close to him, "baby, what's the matter? What's wrong?"

"Another nightmare, that girl, she's dead but yet so alive and she told me that I'm going to die in the flood." Tina was wiping her face, she couldn't believe that rain had so much of a hold on her, "baby, I didn't tell you this but I saw something strange in the kitchen. I didn't want you to think I was out of my mind or needed medicine, you can go see it for yourself, but the water..." she gulped, "the water isn't regular water baby.."

Michael looked around, trying to see if he could see something different out of the window in their room, "what do you mean?" His face was furrowed, he didn't want to believe that things weren't going to be the same or that the rain had somehow gained some type of magical power.

"Just go downstairs and look in the kitchen," Tina wiped her face, "go see for yourself. In my last dream that same little girl popped up and told me that a flood happened in Washington. I don't know what year she's from, but she keeps coming to me. Tonight, she looked as if she aged or something took a toll on her soul, but she didn't look so alive like she did the other night, I don't know if my decisions or my conscious is killing her but when she came to me tonight she said that I'm going to die, she was mad, she snarled, she said that the water was going to eat me alive." Tina began to wail.

Michael pulled her closer, not really believing that his woman could see the things that she saw in her sleep. Michael kissed her forehead and held her body really close to his. "I'm going to look downstairs, whatever is going on we are going to get through this - we are married baby, we are going to make this work."

Tina wailed tears into her chest, "imagine if it was one of our daughters who died and popped up in your sleep, wouldn't it eat your conscious to shit too baby? I can't believe this is really happening. I don't want to see her anymore," she wailed louder, "I just want her to go away. Baby, baby, we have to go!"

"Baby, it's just a tropical storm, we always get these warnings, this is nothing new."

"MICHAEL," Tina hissed in a low salty whisper, "what is new is how downstairs looks! I think we need to figure out how to make our way out of here now!"

Michael rolled his eyes and then proceeded to slide his feet into his slippers before finding his phone. Tina sat up and moved her way to the edge of the bed, grabbing the blankets close to her body, watching Michael with her eyes alert, "are we going to go?"

"Let me check the news first." Michael placed his forehead in his palm, not really wanting to admit that maybe she was right. Michael was dismayed, he used his finger to scroll through the different articles that were popping up on his phone.

Tina rolled her eyes and then drunk the water on her night stand, "fine, but if they tell you that this shit is going to go on and on and on for another ten hours then just know we won't be able to move our cars out of the fucking drive way. You better listen and you better listen fucking close, Michael."

"Okayyy babe, I'm going to listen to see what they say." Michael was over it, truth was that he didn't want to have to leave everything they worked so hard for behind. Michael was really into his day job as a high school math teacher, his wife was a lovely, renowned doctor in Samola, they loved everything about their life. It was the kids, to the home, to the cars, to the careers, and the friends with all of the memories they have made over time. Leaving this land meant that they would spend time having to start over, deep down inside he didn't want that. Michael thought about what it would mean to have transfer his teaching license, she would have to take her exam in another state, they both would have to prove themselves to gain trust with new people and at their ages it wasn't so simple. He scrolled, but he scrolled slowly.

Tina watched her husband anxiously, she wanted to know exactly what he was going to stumble across. At times, Tina hated marriages because the need to act on impulse wasn't always there. In this morning, she just wanted to grab their shit, pack them all in a car and drive far far away. Tina was way more calculated than her partner so when he slowed her down it drove her insane. Tina's motherly instinct let her know that this was all life or death and she didn't really have time to waste, from what she saw in the kitchen she knew the rain would cause their cars to deteriorate and there would be no way out except for on foot.

"So?" She broke the silence, thinking about a rusted engine that wouldn't start.

"From what I'm reading, I think we can make it to the morning time. I don't see anything about this causing too many issues, from what I'm reading the thick of the hurricane has died down, we're not at a category 5 anymore, we are near 4."

"And you really want to fucking wait Michael?" Tina was annoyed, "are you serious?"

"Please, I just don't want to try to panic and then it's nothing serious baby, besides, it's easier to drive when the sun is up and we can grab the girls first thing in the morning. Right now, we're going to be placing our lives more at risk trying to run out of the house at the last minute, we won't be able to see and I'm sure the road is probably jammed pack."

Tina shook her head, "okay."

"Think of it this way, if we can just make it to 5 AM, the sun will be up and starting to rise by the time we are making it out of the house at 6. We don't have that much longer, we can do it baby." Michael placed his phone down and then reached across the bed, he guided her body into his arms and then proceeded to kiss her down.